Glenwood students are going for Gold

CHATHAM — If she could send Olympian Gracie Gold a text message, Olivia Riddley would tell her she is the best skater she’s ever seen.

Hanna Randall would want Gold to know she hopes to be just like her and that she’s very pretty. And Levi Vorreyer’s hope for her is that she wins gold medals — and that she likes his text.

On the bulletin board in Rae Long’s fifth-grade classroom at Glenwood Intermediate School hang nearly two dozen messages from students rooting on the 18-year-old Gold, a former student in the Ball-Chatham School District.

Long said she wants the figure skater to know there are people back home that support her and look up to her.

“Even if it was someone from the Springfield area, we would be rooting for them,” Long said. “But there is a definite added quality for someone who was a Glenwood Titan. That lets (the students) know any of them could reach that goal.”

Since the Winter Olympics began last week in Sochi, Russia, Long has blended it into her class discussions about current events.

Students are keeping track of the countries’ medal counts, researching the different sports and discussing what happened the night before.

Outside of her classroom, a display case is filled with snow skis, ice skates and other items associated with the Winter Olympics that students have brought to class.

But nothing has gotten more attention in Chatham than Gold.

Long said the national champion teen is an inspiration to the students about what they can achieve if they’re willing to work at it.

She said she came up with the idea of having the students write text messages on paper of what they would say to Gold, given the chance.

She then took a picture of the bulletin board and sent it to Gold’s Twitter account. The class hasn’t heard back yet, but Long said she hopes Gold received the message.

It would mean a lot to students such as Randall, who said watching Gold makes her dream of becoming a figure skater one day.

Information

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
The State Journal-Register ~ Street address: One Copley Plaza (corner of Ninth Street and Capitol Avenue), Springfield, ILMailing address: The State Journal-Register, P.O. Box 219, Springfield, IL 62705-0219 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service